Automated Collection Development – A Necessary Luxury

There are quite a few “luxuries” that are foreign to today’s collection development and acquisitions librarians. A resource budget that fits their students’ diverse needs and “just in time” expectations is one example that comes to mind.

The ability to easily manage collections in light of the proliferation of ebooks and progressive models is a second. Simply getting all needed tasks done in a workday with limited staff and resources, a third. Justifying ebook expenditures to university administrators is yet a fourth example.

At ProQuest, everything we do –from optimizing discovery to curating ebook collections, and truly supporting the entire research ecosystem – starts with one goal in mind: Setting librarians and their patrons up for success by giving them the tools and evidence necessary to make that success known. The recently announced automation of ebrary and EBL Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) holdings in the knowledgebase supporting the Summon® service and 360 discovery and management services exemplifies this goal.

What this automation means for librarians is an easier way to manage your ebook holdings from ebrary and EBL. It supports your “just in time” collection development strategies by enabling you to effortlessly participate in creative acquisition models such as DDA and Short-term Loans in addition to traditional models like subscription and purchase. It helps you open the floodgates to a wider range of relevant titles that can be discoverable and accessible to end-users in a more timely manner.

Additionally, you’ll save time because you will no longer need to manually update your ebrary and EBL records, and it’ll be easier for you to remove non-owned titles at the end of the DDA cycle. This time could then be used to promote the value of your library to key stakeholders leveraging ebrary and EBL statistics that both demonstrate return on investment and help inform your collection strategy.

As Barbara Weiner points out in “Marketing: Making a Case for your Library,” the advancements of our digital information age mean that libraries’ longstanding place as information storehouses may no longer be enough to keep them relevant (1). Libraries can no longer rely solely on making resources available; they need to know more about what their users need and focus on making sure this group knows where and how resources are available.

ProQuest is committed to alleviating some of the stress related to collection development and management. We are also dedicated to innovating new models and technologies to improve and enhance your end-to-end ebook workflow. Our goal is to provide an unparalleled research experience, helping users to become more successful in the classroom, the workforce, and beyond.

We understand there are many challenges, and we are here to work with you every step of the way.